Abstract

Decades of research has generated new scientific understanding and technologies aimed at better managing environmental change in estuarine and coastal regions. Yet many across the communities of coastal and estuarine research, management, and funding believe that progress has been too slow in applying this research in practice. This essay reviews how the National Estuarine Research Reserve System ’s funding program evolved over the past two decades to improve how researchers and users of research work together to increase the uptake of science to achieve resource management and conservation goals. Incremental innovation in the design of the NERRS funding program enabled more intensive and multiway engagement between funders, researchers, and users, which created new pathways for applying science in practice. Furthermore, these interactions stimulate reflection and adaptation within each separate institutional setting, supporting changes that may science to better support environmental problem solving.

About this article

This paper, published in Coastal Management, reviews how the National Estuarine Research Reserve System ’s funding program evolved over the past two decades to improve how researchers and users of research work together to increase the uptake of science to achieve resource management and conservation goals.

This paper is part of a larger body of work by Maria Carmen Lemos and James Arnott to understand how to best nurture the production of usable science. Learn more about the science usability team's research findings.